Sleep Disorders Types and Help

Did you know that we spend a third of our lives sleeping and yet we still have more questions than answers when it comes to the mysterious world of sleep like "How can we help to have a better sleep?" and "What happens when we can't sleep?"

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You'll find a real help watching the following descriptions of sleep disorders and types illustrated with pictures and videos. You'll find useful knowledge about pineal gland, side effects of sleep loss, melatonin, stages of sleep, REM sleep, sleep is more than just a nightly ritual, naps, sleep apnea, right mattress help sleep, daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy, attacks of sleep, a gene called orexin, jet lag, common sleeping pills, insomnia, chamomile, nightmares, parasomnias, sleepwalking, shift workers, help get you to sleep, internal clock, night shift, dreams, why we sleep, benefits of dreaming, and more ... Are you ready for Sleep Disorders Types and Help? So, let's start!
NARRATOR (KAT CARNEY) : I'm going to stay awake for 24 hours and take you on a journey through the world of sleep. You'll meet an insomniac who can't get to bed.
ALLISON : This problem was really taking away my life.
NARRATOR : And a round the world sailor who must stay awake. Find out just how violent a sleepwalker can get.
MICHAEL HORSMAN : I ripped my closet door off the wall.
NARRATOR : And see how this man faces suffocation every time he catches a few winks. We'll try to unravel the mystery of dreams and find out how sleep can be utterly terrifying.
DAVID RICHARDS : I feel spiders, snakes.
NARRATOR : At three in the morning I'll hook up with shift workers who like me are toiling away after dark. And through it all I'll try every trick in the book to stay awake.
KAT CARNEY : You weren't supposed to look.
NARRATOR : See what happens to my mind and body as I fight the over powering urge to sleep.
KAT CARNEY : I'm
Kat Carney and for the next 24 hours I'm going to stay awake to test my body's limits as I battle the effects of sleep deprivation. So stay with me as we take a real time look inside the fascinating world of sleep. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get dressed.
KAT CARNEY : I'm going to do my best to go without sleep for 24 hours but that's an easy trick for some sportsmen that I'd like to introduce you to. Check out this natural laboratory for sleep deprivation. These are solo sailors who race around the world. They're alone at sea for as long as six weeks at a time. These are people who if they had their choice would never shut their eyes. Sailors who fall asleep at the helm of one of these boats could not only lose the race they could lose their lives. John Pierre Mouligne is a solo sailor who managed to survive and win the 26.000-mile around alone challenge.
JOHN PIERRE MOULIGNE (Winner of 1998-99 "Around Alone Challenge") : The danger when you're sailing alone and you don't have enough sleep is you know, you start to hallucinate. After three days without sleeping you start to go crazy. You literally see stuff coming out of the water and what's dangerous about it is that you start to make very bad decisions.
NARRATOR : Unfortunately, these solo sailors can't avoid that semi-conscious state we call sleep. Though we spend about eight hours a night sleeping from cradle to grave scientists still struggle to define it. In fact, the best we can really do is describe it. Sleep, generally speaking, is when our bodies are still we drift away from conscious thought and we become unresponsive to stimuli from the outside world. To sleep is also to recharge our batteries. It plays a key role in the growth and repair of our muscles and organs and scientists think we may even need sleep to help lock in the day's memories.
KAT CARNEY : When I force myself to stay awake I'm fighting natural daily cycles called circadian rhythms. These regulate daily changes in my blood pressure my body temperature and most importantly. My sleep.
NARRATOR : Our circadian rhythms are controlled in our brain by the master clock. A small collection of cells located where pathways from our two eyes meet. Tapping directly into the visual system our master clock monitors the amount of light in the outside world. As it gets dark the clock triggers the pineal gland to release a hormone called melatonin which signals the body to prepare for sleep. Exposure to light is the main factor that sets our clock and determines when we feel awake and when we're ready to call it a day. We fight our natural clock at our own peril. Whether you're trying to work a normal job or sail a boat around the world too little sleep leads to mood changes such as irritability and depression. It temporarily diminishes mental abilities leading to problems with memory and concentration. Motor skills. Reflexes and hand eye coordination also suffer. These are side effects of sleep loss a solo sailor definitely wants to avoid.
JOHN PIERRE MOULIGNE : Learning how to sleep efficiently is the key to the whole thing. I think it's the most important factor of single handed sailing is knowing how to manage your fatigue and your sleep.
NARRATOR : Jean-Pierre recruited Dr. Claudio Stampi who has studied the sleep patterns of over 100 solo sailors.
CLAUDIO STAMPI (MD, The Chronobiology Research Institute) : I started studying solo sailors over 20 years ago because I was interested in sleep deprivation and in ways to manage sleep deprivation in situations where you cannot avoid it. Solo sailing is a very interesting model of that because the sailor is alone and has to deal with all sorts of efforts physical, mental, intellectual. So your brain needs to be working very well.
NARRATOR : The average sleeper on land has his night broken into five distinct stages:

Stage 1: is the transition from being awake to sleep - it's that drifting feeling where your eyes get heavy; if you are awakened, you might not even realize you've nodded off.
Stage 2: is a very light sleep - your muscles relax and your brain activity slows.
Stage 3: is deep sleep - where the heart and breathing rate slow considerably and the brain and body begins to truly rest.
Stage 4: is the deepest level of sleep - it is in deep sleep where the body releases human growth hormone which orchestrates the routine repair of muscle and bone.
Stage 5: REM sleep - 90 minutes or so into sleep you shift into rapid eye movement; it is here that dreaming occurs and it is here where we likely consolidate our memories.
NARRATOR : But solo sailors don't have the luxury of sleeping through an entire night. Out at sea they are never more than a few minutes away from a potential disaster. Stampi's solution? Return. Literally. To sleeping like a baby.
CLAUDIO STAMPI : We are nappers for several months. And sometimes for years after a birth and when we get to the old ages we also tend to return to a poly-phasic pattern to a multiple napping pattern. So the idea is probably relatively easy for us to go back to this ancestral pattern and in fact, this is exactly the strategy that most solo sailors do. They take several naps many times per day.
NARRATOR : Using autopilot, the sailor can grab a quick nap and get the rest the body so badly needs to survive.
JOHN PIERRE MOULIGNE : Really tried never to sleep more than 25 minutes at a time get up for five minutes you look around make sure everything is good on the boat the boat is going fast in the right direction and then go back to sleep for 25 minutes.
NARRATOR : For Jean-Pierre this strategy not only gave him the edge to win the race, he's put it to use at home as well.
JOHN PIERRE MOULIGNE : We just had a baby about four weeks ago and my training that's really helping me out. We're sleeping about an hour and a half at a time you know. So it's working.
NARRATOR : Dr. Stampi has helped dozens of solo sailors learn that sleep is more than just a nightly ritual. It's the key to victory. A lesson we should all take to heart.
KAT CARNEY : So I've been up for a couple of now and I'm feeling fresh and well rested and ready to go. And right now I'm standing in the offices of Circadian Technologies, a company that's devoted to improving safety and alertness in the workplace. Now we're gonna begin our experiment here by testing my alertness on their state of the art driving simulator. And then at the end of my 24 hour experiment we're gonna come back and we're gonna test my alertness again and get a before and after comparison. So are you ready to go? I am. Buckle up. Let's take it for a spin. So. I'm all hooked up. Is there anything I need to know before I start here?
MARTIN MOORE-EDE (MD, President of Circadian Technologies Inc.) : Well you just have to do some driving. Just try to stay on the road stay in the lane.
KAT CARNEY : Okay. Stay on the road. Stay in the lane. Are there gonna be any cars coming at me?
MARTIN MOORE-EDE : No. It's gonna be a very boring drive because we want you to get drowsy as soon as possible.
NARRATOR : They're easuring my speed, my steering and my reaction time. How well I do behind the wheel deteriorates with loss of sleep. And these wires? They're measuring my brain waves looking to see if I have miniature sleep episodes so small I can't even notice them.
MARTIN MOORE-EDE : Now this may look easy now but if you get to about two o'clock in the morning and short of sleep then you'll start having these little micro sleep lapses. Which of course are what we're really trying to study here. Where people just totally lose it and may. If the road takes a bend. They'll come off because the car will just keep going straight.
NARRATOR : Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, president of Circadian Technologies, will compare my driving today with my performance tomorrow after a full night of sleep deprivation.
KAT CARNEY : So if I only miss a couple of hours of sleep or let's say I only got five hours of sleep last night does that put me at risk?
MARTIN MOORE-EDE : You're going to be at risk at certain times. As I said. You will be at risk after lunch. You'll be at risk night-time. Late hour driving. That's the time when you're most vulnerable. But even an hour or two's worth of sleep loss can have some effect.
KAT CARNEY : Well, I'm doing pretty good but let's see how I do tomorrow.

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